The song was written in 1984, inspired by a TV documentary on ApartheidSouth Africa seen by Siffre in which white soldiers were filmed shooting at black civilians in the street. He told the BBC's Soul Music programme in 2014 that the song was also influenced by his experience as a homosexual child, adolescent and adult (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b040hx6j). Siffre originally intended to give the song to another artist to sing, but could find no one suitable and was convinced to release it himself.[2]